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tv   Larry King Live  CNN  April 30, 2010 9:00pm-10:00pm EDT

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the deputy was not there. they don't know anything about his condition. >> casey wian doing great work reporting on this story for us exclusively tonight. we thank you. i want to thank all of my guests. we'll stay with this story at cnn. i'm rick sanchez. thank you so much for being with us. here now "larry king live." >> larry: tonight, could aliens from other worlds conquer and colonize planet earth? astro physicist stephen hawking says it's possible, and issues a warning for all of us. stop trying to contact other life forms now, just in case they're out there and they're hostile. >> they are likely to be more advanced that us. >> hawking joins us, answering our questions, sounding the alarm. and believer dan aykroyd is here too. >> i don't belief they're a mass threat, but they're breaking the law. >> larry: aliens from out of
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space real threat to human life? next on "larry king live." >> larry: good evening. you can say that this show tonight is out of this world. john smithson is executive producer of end of the universe with stephen hawking, . stephen hawk willing join us later. warns that contact with extraterrestrial life might not go so well. watch. >> so if aliens ever visit us, i think the outcome would be much as when christopher columbus first landed in america. which didn't turn out very well for the native americans. >> larry: john, you're producing the show. do you accept the theory?
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>> well, we -- we're working with one of the greatest living scientists, one of the best scientific brains in the world. and i'm not a scientist. my job on this series for discovery channel was to bring the views, the vision, the imagination of this great scientist to a mass audience. these interest words of professor hawking. i don't have the scientific credentials to second guess professor hawking. i'm prepared to believe him because he is such a great scientist. and what we said about aliens in that program was very much what stephen hawking wanted to say. for years he had been lecturing about -- about lots of things, including the possibilities of alien life. what we were able to do for the first time using the wonders of computer graphics was to visualize with professor hawking hypothetically what they might look like. that's what we're able to do
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here. >> larry: how did this come about? how did you and stephen and john all get together and do this? >> well, discovery wanted to do a new and exciting show on cosmology. and so we sat around the table for a while and thought who best to do it. and there isn't a bigger name than stephen hawking. so it was a very simple, very, very short list of who we wanted to work with. and then we pitched it to him. and you may know that stephen takes quite a while to respond to questions. so we gave him our pitch, showed him the tape, and we had to wait a while. but thankfully the answer was yes, i'd love to do it. so that's how it got going. >> larry: john, are you surprised at the reaction it has gotten around the world? >> no, i'm not, because, you know, professor hawking is this distinguished academic, as we've said. but also, he wants to bring science to a new generation, to
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people around the world. and he is prepared -- everything he says of course is immaculately scientifically sourced. but he wants to entertain people. and by entertaining them, he wants to interest them in science. you know, every -- this was done really incredibly closely we've been working with stephen hawking for three years on this. and he really did want to somehow popularize his views, the universe inside his mind. so i think he leapt at that chance of doing a series that was both totally big deal science, definitive science what we know about the cosmos, but in an educating and in an informative and in an entertaining way so that a global audience on discovery channel could be sort of interested in this. >> larry: ben, does the british government take this seriously? >> i'm not -- i'm not sure i'm qualified to answer that, but i don't think so.
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>> larry: john -- well, ben, you first. the tendency has been to kind of dismiss this, until mr. hawking arrived, as kind of kooky, right? >> maybe it's been overstated slightly from what he actually says in the film. what he says in the film is that if intelligent aliens exist -- that's a big if -- and that's were to meet us, that's another big if, then we might be wise to treat them with caution. it's not stephen saying as far as i know in any way, stephen is not saying aliens are coming, we've got to hide under the bed. he is not trying to frighten anyone. he is just saying if you follow the argument logically, then he thinks that we would be wise to be -- to exercise caution when dealing with aliens. >> larry: so what do we do with this, john, other than entertain and inform us? what's the next step? >> well, what we're trying to do with this -- you know, what is just so amazing about this subject, it just blew my mind.
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i'm not a scientist. my job is to make tv programs. what blew my mind is the huge scale of the universe. i'll never look at the night sky the same way again. just during the three years we've been making this show, someone told me the other day 300 billion stars have been born. 300 billion stars have died. these are just awesome figures. and what we're doing next really is just -- literally what we're doing next on sunday night is the ultimate story on the discovery channel, the ultimate story of how it all began 14.7 billion years ago, and how it might all end. and it is really the ultimate story. >> larry: let me get a break and come right back. >> fascinating. >> larry: we'll get a break and come right back with john smithson and ben bowie. stephen hawking is coming up. but first, how would we respond if alien life landed on earth? stay with us. you know, when i grow up,
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>> larry: do you believe in life in other places, other planets?
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>> life appeared on earth fairly soon after the earth was formed, 4.5 billion years ago. that success at primitive life appears spontaneously on any suitable planet. on the other hand, intelligent life seems very rare. it has yet to be detected on earth. >> larry: stephen hawking has a great sense of humor. in 1977, a radio signal was received called the wow signal. take a look. >> on august 16th, 1977, a radio telescope in ohio picked up a signal that became famous. the signal was a steady source of radio waves, just the kind an alien race might send because it stands out from the radio static that fills the universe.
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a computer recorded the signal as six letters and numbers. astronomer jerry ermin saw the letters and wrote one word in the margin. >> larry: this is a remarkable, remarkable entertaining feature that will air on discovery sunday. john smithson and ben bowie are the executive producers of "end of the universe with stephen hawking." this would be an opinion, ben. do you think we would be hostile or not hostile to another environment coming here? >> do i think -- i don't think you can really say. i think the only thing you can say is that you don't know. if you don't know, then caution seems to be the most sensible approach. i'm not one to call whether aliens will come here and stroke us and pet us or zap us with lasers. i think we just don't know, and therefore you can't really
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say -- you can't say one way or the other. you can think maybe caution would be a good idea. >> larry: stephen theorizes the negative aspect, does he not, john? >> he rightly thinks we should be cautious, and i'm not going to second guess professor hawking. but that is what is so intriguing, isn't it, about this whole subject? could there be life out there? if so is that just some sort of green gloop or is it something that is a real menacing threat. that's what we don't know. many better scientific minds than mine are obsessed with looking. i think you've got guests later who will tell us a lot more than. but it is just totally intriguing. it's been the subject of literature. it's been the subject of movies. and i think it someone of the most intriguing questions of all, which is why it's one of the questions stephen hawking himself wanted to deal with in this series. because it really is one of the big questions we all face. are we alone in this planet of
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ours. and we're talking even if it is one in a billion, then there are billions of dollars. so we're playing a big numbers game here. >> larry: john, was this fun to do? is he easy to work with? >> it was -- it was fun, but it's probably the most complex and challenging program i've ever been involved with because you're dealing with the most ferociously complicated story, most ferociously complicated science imaginable, but we were trying to make it in a way that people like myself could understand. so it was -- it was brain-numbingly difficult, but also really good fun. and stephen hawking is just a remarkable man. i mean he -- he just has this presence. everyone feels it. we did something with him last night in london. and the whole room stops when he comes in. he has, you know, it's weird. we almost talk of him as a rock star of science. he has this extraordinary aura
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about him. and we just know that trapped in this body that he can't use is this quite brilliant brain. and there is something about that that is such a powerful and poignant image. it just seems to touch people. >> larry: thank you both very much, john smithson and ben bowie. the second part of this special will air sunday on discovery. we'll be back. we'll talk with stephen hawking and we'll meet an expert panel as well. stephen hawking in his own words, next.
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if civilizations take billions of years to evolve, only to vanish virtually overnight, then sadly, we've next to no chance of hearing from them. they are simply too far away in space and time to reach. but there is one last possibility. that aliens who have avoided destroying themselves are already colonizing the universe. >> larry: we're back. in a new discovery channel documentary, astrophysicist stephen hawking said that communicating with aliens could be a threat to earth. hawking says it's likely that alien life exists, and that a visit from extraterrestrials might be similar to columbus' arrival in the americas. in other words, didn't turn out too well for native americans. joining us are dr. michio kaku, author of "physics of the
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impossible" the world of phaser, force fielded, teleportation and time travel. the senior adviser of the seti institute. david brynn, astronomer and futurist, and our friend the well-known actor dan aykroyd who believes that alien life exists. we wanted to hear directly from the renowned british scientists, former guest on this program stephen hawking about his controversial claims. so i sent him some questions. here are his answers. do you think there will ever be direct contact wean the inhabitants of earth and alien life? >> it's nice to see you again, larry. after ten years. i think we may find primitive life, but it's unlikely there are intelligent aliens within 100 light years, or we would have detected their radio signals. >> larry: if contact does occur, do you think it will be initiated by us or by them?
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>> they are likely to be more advanced than us. so they will contact us first. >> larry: you're warning that it may be too risky to try to contact space aliens has stirred a lot of debate. do you care to react to some of the criticism those who say the search for extraterrestrial life is central to central to space exploration? >> i think we should look for primitive life. if advanced life exists, they'll contact us. aliens have contacted us so far, except maybe in the state of arizona. >> larry: in your mind, what would an advanced alien look like? >> they are bound to have a mouth opening because they will have to take in nutrition. and they will probably have legs because they will need to move around. and they'll need eyes.
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but don't expect them to look like marilyn monroe. >> larry: should we ban messages into the universe for fear of attracting dangerous aliens? >> it is too late. if they are looking, they will already have detected us. >> larry: thanks for joining us. stephen hawking. >> goodbye, larry. i hope to see you this fall when my new book with leonard mlodinow, "the grand design" is released. thank you. >> larry: what do you make of his thinking? >> first of all, don't quit your day job, larry. don't sell the store. the aliens are not going to invade any time soon. i think what stephen is doing is giving us a wake-up call. the next few months to two years we have two satellites out there that are going to detect earth-like twins in outer space. maybe with liquid oceans, maybe with life on them. when we look at the night sky in the next few years, we're going
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have to get used to the fact that somebody could be staring back at us. we're going to have an exist centennial shock when the results of the satellite announce they have found earth-like planets in space. >> larry: seth shostak, you buy it? >> of course i buy that. but look, i think what stephen hawking is saying we're going to hear from them first. that's exactly what we try and do in the seti business. we have big antennas scanning the skies looking for civilizations that would be quite far away. there is no danger in that. you tune in the radio, you don't have to worry about the dj jumping into your home and giving you a hard time. that's a completely harmless sort of thing and interesting because it would tell you whether earth is really, really special, or whether there is enormous quantities of life out there. >> larry: but david, one thing it has done with stephen hawking talking about it, it has opened many eyes, hasn't it? >> oh, yes. the problem is that everybody seems to have their own idea of
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of course what aliens ought to be like. we all say of course our broadcasts have already been detected by now. when seth himself has calculated and most of the astronomers have calculated that our tv broadcasts actually dissipate pretty soon after they leave our solar system. it's these narrow beams that are being sent out from taxpayer-paid observatories like aricebo and ukraine that are causing the fuss. without consulting the taxpayers, without consulting the governments, without consulting fellow scientists at all in other disciplines. these people have taken upon themselves to act on their assumptions that aliens are universal universally altruistic. it's not the beamed messages, but rather the arrogance of not
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talking to anybody else on this planet before assuming they have the right to do this. >> larry: and by the way, the images you're seeing are images and imaginations. all right, dan, how do you contrast with david brin who is saying -- what do you really know? >> well, thank you for including a hollywood constituent here. i'm the new fund for hollywood new fund ufo network. i have to speak for the people today and for hollywood. we've made some pretty good movies about this, et, close enkoyrnts, indiana jones crystal skull and coneheads tande the earth stood still one and two. the hawking speech that i heard is he specifically referenced a july 1952 sight over the united states coast guard station in washington, d.c. no astrophysicist of his credibility and reputation has ever actually mentioned a ufo sighting. so to us in that community, we sit up right away. and what we say is seti, please
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continue. maybe focus in on where there might be planets. please continue, but please also accept the fact that they may have been coming and going here for many years without calling seti back. in fact, i believe they're in violation of title 18, section 1202 paragraph a of the united states code which says whoever abducts someone for ransom or otherwise is liable to criminal prosecution. and if you know the story of barney and betty hill, stanton friedman's book, herb short-termer, the nebraska highway patrolman, he spoke of witnesses, callahan of the faa. >> larry: i got to get a break. you're making a strong point. one question i always ask, why did they land in wyoming? why not new york? >> i'll tell you that later. >> larry: or chicago. maybe we'll get answers, ahead. what did we make better ?
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>> larry: i love that. stephen hawking weighed in on what alien life might be like on other planets. here is what he had to say. >> the laws of physics appear to be the same everywhere. so it follows that the laws of life should be universal too. even if the detail is different.
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we can use life on earth as a kind of alien hunters handbook, a field guide to what life actually is, and how it works, no matter where it occurs. . >> larry: dr. kaku, you're a renowned physicist. you accept that? >> well, yeah. life is going to be found throughout the universe. however, i don't think they're going to want to come and strip mine the earth. there are a lot of planets out there that are probably uninhabited without restive natives. if you're a camper, are you going to sit down where there are a lot of scorpions and tarantulas and rattlesnakes? no. you're going go where it is clean of pests. why would they bother with earth when there is plenty of pristine planets? there is no point to mess with the natives. it's not going to be quite like columbus meeting a native and genocide. think more like the vietnam war, okay? an intelligent species may simply day it's not worth to it get the natives angry. >> larry: "avatar." did you see "avatar"?
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>> i did. great movie. >> larry: you liked it. >> uh-huh. >> larry: as a physicist, you liked it? >> well, it opens up whole worlds. perhaps a europa-type moon circulating around jupiter could have oceans under the ice cover. >> larry: with the exception of dr. kaku, isn't this larger than -- can't imagine it. i don't know what i'm going to have for lunch. >> well, i hope it's not unimaginable, because after all we're trying to imagine it, and we're not only doing that, we're trying do an experiment, right? we would like to know if it really is true out there. i agree with michio that they're not going to come here and strip mine the planet. you don't have to worry about that. in the movie they go to pandora, but you can work out the cost of transport, and this would be like ordering a book from amazon and paying $6,000 for the shipping. we're not -- you wouldn't do that, and the aliens are not going to come here for that. could they come here for some other reason? possibly. but you know, david brin said that they might not pick up our
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television, but they might pick up our very strong radars. look, if they have the technology to come here and actually threaten us, they long ago could have the technology to pick up our signals. they'll know we're here. >> larry: david, succinctly put, what do you believe? >> well, that's the whole point, larry. as an astronomer, as a science fiction author, i've been thinking about is the alien, discussing the alien with everybody i could for the last 50 years. and what i believe is that everybody is too strong in their beliefs right now. seti, the search for extraterrestrials is called the only topic without a subject matter. and everybody gets passionate. they believe that they would have seen our signals by now. they believe that space flight is impossible, which is the standard seti position, or that if there are aliens out there, they'll automatically be altruistic, which is wishful thinking where we're heading.
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i would like more open conversation about this. i would like the seti people to get involved. >> larry: isn't it true we know a little bit, but there is so much we don't know? the question is why don't they land in l.a. and new york, dan? >> well, first of all, i'm glad this is grounded in real science. i can't wait to see the discovery special. but they don't land here. they only land in isolated places. they have taken people, i believe. they do have technology. lord hill norton of the british defense staff said that he believed 23 people the why not here. >> that 23 species are coming because they don't want anything to do with us. i don't think we'll ever have a formal relationship, a formal contact with any alien species out there, especially after 9/11. when we broke our toys in the sandbox, if they were observing that, goodbye human race. and honestly, i don't think they're a mass threat, but i do believe they're breaking the law. i'm serious. title 18, 1202. read the travis walton story. >> larry: so how do you arrest them? >> that's the thing. the fbi should be on that right
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away. i don't think they're a mass threat. if you want to save lives in this country, teach people to drive better, remove the cocaine appetite in the united states and stop people from texting while driving. that's the way to save lives. i look at this through the entertainment filter, larry. >> larry: i gather that. that's why you're going to do another again. >> you bet. we're working on it today. >> larry: we'll be back with more. don't go away. suitcase? huh? ♪ where do gummy bears hide? under the seat. look! yeah! ♪ [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] the all new chevy equinox. [ man ] guess who? dad! [ man ] enjoy the trip! okay, daddy! [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] a consumers digest best buy. with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. it takes you farther... and brings you closer. you can label as "different." like janice. uh-huh. yeah. fashion deficient. and tom... copy incapable. it's open kimono time. looking good, dan.
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at this scale, each point of light is an entire galaxy. which not only puts our little world in perspective, but also makes it difficult to believe we really are alone. so to my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. >> larry: one thing true, this subject will never go away. the discovery channel documentary discusses several theories about how life originated on earth, and how it could also have originated on other planets. watch. >> it is extremely unlikely that life could spontaneously create itself. but i don't think that's a problem with this theory. it's like winning a lottery.
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although the odds are astronomical, most weeks someone hits the jackpot. but there is another intriguing idea called panspermia, which says life could have generated somewhere else and been spread planet to planet by asteroids. >> larry: dr. kaku, in your opinion, how did it all start? >> probably on the earth. probably in the oceans where there is liquid water. we physicists always say follow the water. liquid water is the amniotic fludd of life where dna got off the ground. >> larry: isn't water redundant? >> ice is common out of space. comets are made out of water. we have a lot of it on earth. >> larry: why here and why then? because there was water? >> and we think that water is the mixing bowl for dna getting off the ground. >> larry: is there water on
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other planets? >> well, liquid water does not exist outside the earth other than maybe a satellite of jupiter. so we think that it's a very precious commodity, and that's what we look for in outer space, the presence of water, especially liquid water. and also you asked the question why don't we see them, why don't they make contact with us. maybe they're so advanced that we're not even on their radar screen. we're so arrogant to believe that they're going to want to land on the white house lawn. i mean, if you see an ant hill in the forest, you go down to the ants and say i bring you trinkets, i bring you beads. i give you nuclear energy. take me to your ant leader. is that what you do when you see an ant hill? i don't think so. >> larry: seth, that concept sounds very interesting. do you, seth, do you factually believe they're there? >> well, in my heart of hearts, larry, obviously i think we're there, obviously i wouldn't be doing this kind of research. look, the seti institute is building a new an ten in
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northern california, the allen telescope array. this thing will be able to greatly accelerate the search. the fact that we haven't picked up a signal so far, and that's been mentioned several times here, it doesn't mean a thing because we've barely scratched the surface. it's the next 20, 30 years that counts. i think we may find a signal, otherwise i wouldn't do this job. it's not that lucrative. i do want to say something to dan aykroyd who thinks they're here. how many times does he go down to the l.a. airport and sit in the plane and the captain comes on and series we're going to delay our departure a little bit because there are unidentified flying objects in the area and the faa wants us to stray on the ground. >> remember chicago, sir. >> it doesn't affect us at all. >> web chicago. what was that? was that a weather anomaly? something punched through the cloud. >> yes, it was a weather anomaly. >> i don't believe it was a weather anomaly. all right. i support seti. go to it i just don't think they're calling like they took barney and betty.
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>> larry: david, has nasa discovered anything? >> well, the -- we could go on for hours about paranoid theories like ufos. i personally find the ufo aliens unlikely because the number of cameras is doubling every single year, and the grays that they're talking about are such tedious boring versions of aliens. i support seth in that i have supported seti all my life. but i think it's been shown recently that seti needs to change track. seti has failed to see the garish, huge garish beacons that frank drake expected out there. seti should keep look. they may be farther away. but it turns out that what we should be looking for is more of those wow signals. and you do that not with a single telescope, but with 10,000 amateur telescopes in backyards all over the world. and this system could make sure that all parts of the sky were being watched all the time.
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and then we might see that wow signal come back, because calculations show that's how the aliens would far more likely try to communicate. >> larry: science fiction films have had some good alien story lines. which are true to life? our experts will weigh in, coming up. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis. with two clinically proven dosing options, you can choose the moment that's right for you and your partner. 36-hour cialis and cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right. day or night. >> tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. >> don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. >> don't drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache, or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. >> if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, stop taking cialis and call
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we're back. comedian stephen colbert had some fun with hawking's views on alien life encounters. watch. >> this hubbell humper is back with a new tv series "into the universe with stephen hawking." and here, here is what he had to say about the prospect of mankind encountering aliens. >> the outcome would be much as when christopher columbus landed in america, which didn't turn out very well for native americans. >> why do the aliens get to be columbus in this scenario? i think we humans have a proven track record of raping and pillaging. it's right there on mankind's resume. special skills, 50 words per minute, power point, smallpox. >> you can have a lot of fun with this. do you accept the humor of it? >> i do. and we think hollywood likes david versus goliath stories, right. however, it could be goliath
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versus the mosquito in real life. they could be that advanced, we could be mosquitos. however, even goliath is not going to go where there is a swamp of mosquitos. so even though our technology may be primitive compared to goliath, it's not going to be a one-to-one combat like in science fiction. they may avoid us. >> larry: as a noted physicist, what puzzle use the most? >> the question. why aren't they here? if they're so expensive and so galactic in their scope, and billions of years more advanced. and i think the answer to me is pretty clear. we're not on their radar screen. we're simply too insignificant to them. >> larry: seth, is there any science fiction movie that came close to capturing what you think might be? >> well, at the risk of sounding self-promoting here, obviously the movie "contact" which kind of portrayed the work of the seti institute. so obviously i like that one, because the science was pretty accurate. carl sagan wrote the story. never mind you when jodie foster goes out into space to meet her
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dad on another solar system, that's maybe not so accurate. but that film was pretty good when it came to the science. >> larry: david, do you have a favorite science fiction film? >> oh, there are so many. i -- i worry that we're concentrating so hard on things that can be filmed. i mean, i've had movies, and sure, they're entertaining, but it's in the science fiction novels where you actually get serious thinking about what aliens might be like. and then the next novel says yes, but. and then the next says yes but. we need to bring this conversation out into the real world where people can maybe watch you chair three or four hours of scientists really getting at it. because the historians have a lot to say. the biologists have a lot to say. and they have not been consulted in any of this so far. >> larry: i would volunteer immediately to do that. dan, didn't you make a film
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about your stepmother being an alien? >> well, yes. but i also made coneheads. you will be spared when my species overtakes your miserable planet. and we had fun with that one note to david brin. if photographic evidence in there, then bruce maccabee in the service warfare development agency has been wasting his life. i think you should talk to bruce david and he'll show you how he has broken down some of these photos, proved the ones that are hoaxes and the ones that seem to be genuine photos of aircraft that are far more ergonomically than we. >> larry: why don't these stories make the front page of the "new york times"? >> but they do all the time. it's in the -- there was a recent article in "the new york times" in the one of the subsections about abductees visiting at the medical institute of new york and discussing how their experiences. all i have to say, it's very entertaining to me. and let's keep it grounded in science, but please accept maybe
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that the reality is that maybe they are here coming to treat us like the ants that the doctor talks about, and that really, ultimately in the end, they will not want anything to do with us because we're basically pretty bad. >> larry: i got it. all right. hold it. does the united states have some kind of official policy with regard to aliens? that's next. just ahead on "360," two breaking news stories. as bad as the oil spill is in the gulf, we're going to tell you about a secret government memo painting an even grimmer picture. in arizona, with battle lines drawn over the immigration law, a tense scenario likely just got a little worse. a deputy patrolling near the border was shot by an alleged illegal immigrant. more on both those stories at the top of the hour. more "larry king live" in just a moment. my wife, i think she finds a new app every week.
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>> larry: by the way, dr. kaku's newest book is "physics of the impossible, a scientific exploration of the world of phasers force fields, teleportation and time travel." is there a government policy about this? >> well, we used to have the bl book. the government used to monitor these things. then it shut it down and lost
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interest. then, you know, the u.k. and other countries have loongd at these things. they're not taken seriously. however, i personally believe that 95% of these sightings can be dismissed but 5% of them really give you the willies. 5% cannot be explained easily using the known laws. physics. that doesn't mean they're not natural. >> larry: do you believe in the area 51 or the new mexico story of hidden bodies? do you believe that? >> no. i don't believe ailens came 500,000 miles to get tacos and then crashed into the dirt. i might point out, the government does have at least one policy when it comes to extraterrestrial life. there is a whole office of planetary protection. simply to make sure if we bring rocks back from mars or we send rockets to mars, we don't
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contaminate either planet by carrying the biology alongside so we don't mistake martian life or earth life or bray pathogen back to earth. >> larry: why doesn't the government treat it seriously? >> i think the government has. they've been interested for many years. there is all kinds. footage. we know you saw something. we're not sure what it was. joint army and navy air force publication. number 146 specifically instructs pilots and army aviators, if you see one of these things, don't talk about it. it is a breach of national security. the air force has been very interested. the memo says we have to look into these things. they're aerodynamically advance asked there is something here. they have been interested and i think today, still. >> larry: is that true? >> i want to speak up for
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humanity. first, he is completely right that the earth was prime real estate for 2 billion years before we came around. we see no signs in the geology of the rocks if they had toss ad coke bottle or emptied their latrine in our oceans, we would have seen the traces. so it stretches on a big time and it is the big question of why we're alone. i want to speak up for people in america. these retired crotchetty old engineers would have been speaking up a lot more if they had been in area 51, if there had been a ross well. >> larry: let me get a break. as usual, we've just skimmed the surface. time for another "larry king live" moment. i spoke to bill cosby in 1997 at his childhood home in philadelphia about the toughest thing any parent can endure. the loss of a child.
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>> larry: we're at 919 parish place, apartment a, philadelphia. the grow-up home of bill cosby. >> it was very, very small. i brought them by here to see where i grew up. and he said he wanted to go home. he told camille that i took him someplace and tried to prove to him that life was rough. but he didn't believe it. >> larry: i've known bill cosby a long time. interviewed him many times. the hardest setting for anyone is death to begin with. >> we were all there. ennis was coming home. we put the coffin into place. and everybody went to look for him. i didn't go. i don't want to see my son, like have memories. >> larry: how a guy could go on after a child has died is incomprehensible to me. i would never go on.
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one great thing you must have seen all over the world was the love, the caring. >> you never really know what people judge you by if you hit the mark and you made them very, very happy. and i mean to continue to do that. >> larry: you're an ace. >> watch your mouth. ace of what? >> hearts. >> thank you. >> larry: you can see this and other clips at cnn.com/larryking. we want your help in ranking the top five. make your picks. we'll reveal what you decide beginning the week of may 31st. you may meet me, see the show, have dinner. it's great. i eat anything that i want. key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake, raspberry cheesecake...
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with nutrisystem, there are no more excuses. the nutrisystem roll back sales event won't last long. call or click now. >> larry: we've about run out of time. dan akroyd, sum it up. your opinion is succinctly. >> they're here. science should accept they're here and look how they come from a billion years in the future or wherever the next dimension
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they're coming from. they have abducted people but i say, go seti, go, because maybe the nice ones will call. >> larry: what do you believe? what do you know, know? >> i believe a, they're out there but b, they're benevolent. if they're thousands of years more advanced, they've had thousands of sears. next time you hear abducted, please, swipe a pen. that will settle it right there. >> larry: what do you believe? >> i believe that we ought to keep looking. the big question is, is earth a miracle? or is life just a cosmic infection? i think the latter is probably true but let's go
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